BioWare Social Network has a summary of the first magazine review of Mass Effect 3, which offers impressions of BioWare's action/RPG sequel. It also offers perspective on how long the game should last, saying the main quest runs for about 15-20 hours, which amounts to about 40 hours of total playtime, saying "side missions are vital to amass enough opposition to the Reaper threat." They also note the game includes about 90 minutes of cutscenes, while also offering impressions of the game that do not involve clock-watching. Thanks Computer and Video Games. On an interesting side note, while noting the game's preorders are well ahead of its predecessor's, MCV also points out that Destructoid recently put on a green visor to do some accounting to tally up what it would cost to get all the DLC planned for Mass Effect 3. This results in an eye-popping $869.91 price tag. Part of the reason this ends up so inflated is because some of it is bundled with Razor hardware, though this illustrates the problem the plan presents to a completionist. Finally, if you are in need of some marketing, Game Informer has a commercial for the game.

theyarecomingforyou wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 11:57:ME3 looks to be a great game. However, I refuse to support EA's attempt to undermine Steam. And it's not because I'm blindly loyal to Steam, as I don't mind buying Blizzard games via Battle.net - that's because they're not specifically boycotting Steam, as their games aren't available on other digital distribution services. But EA is happy to sell their games on every platform, except for Steam.

Cutter wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 13:11:So it's really 20 hours or less. You're a fool if you buy this thing full price!

If you skip through, focusing on just the main storyline then yeah...it'll be pretty short. But it's all of the side-quests, squadmate story-arcs, even random planet encounters that really fill in the bulk of these games. It's always been like that, and with the exception of the random planet stuff, the side-missions are on par with the main storyline in terms of content.

Not to mention it's easily replayable at least one time for the Paragon/Renegade paths.

Steam records me playing ME2 for 64 hours, which includes one run including 6 of the 7 mission DLC (all but Arrival) and doing about every side mission. It also includes what turned out to be far too much planet scanning since I decided I'd get it out of the way early and I overestimated requirements.

That was just playing for fun and only referring to guide or whatever to make sure I wasn't missing stuff.

Personally, DLC is just another reason to wait a year before buying a ME type game. I never feel any draw to do an adventure type game a second time.

, MCV also points out that Destructoid recently put on a green visor to do some accounting to tally up what it would cost to get all the DLC planned for Mass Effect 3. This results in an eye-popping $869.91 price tag

Kastagir wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 12:40:Preorders are where Bioware/EA make their money now. This is because once the game is out, everyone sees how bad it is, with or without the "awesome button." I'm dismayed that people still haven't realized this after Dragon Age 2.

Yawn. The so-called "awesome-button" of DA2 had extremely little to do with the game being so bad. And I seriously doubt ME3 will be equally terrible. The demo was promising for being mostly a tutorial mission. The impression I got was that it should play like ME2 with some more customization options.. Without reaching ME1 levels of total tedium with that pointless loot and inventory-system.

I still won't get to play it in ages, though, thanks to their clever new DLC scheme. While the DLC itself probably won't be on sale for the next couple of decades, at least I should be able to pick up the boxed copy for cheap eventually.. I actually did manage to pick up all ME2 DLCs with the exception of Arrival (which wasn't out yet) for 200 MS points each during their one-day xmas sale a year or two back, but I wouldn't count on something like that happening again.. Plus I want the PC version now that there's a working save-game converter.

Preorders are where Bioware/EA make their money now. This is because once the game is out, everyone sees how bad it is, with or without the "awesome button." I'm dismayed that people still haven't realized this after Dragon Age 2.

This results in an eye-popping $869.91 price tag. Part of the reason this ends up so inflated is because some of it is bundled with Razor hardware, though this illustrates the problem the plan presents to a completionist.

That's not quite accurate. Most of the hardware stuff unlocks the same DLC, so buying every piece of hardware would be redundant.

ME3 looks to be a great game. However, I refuse to support EA's attempt to undermine Steam. And it's not because I'm blindly loyal to Steam, as I don't mind buying Blizzard games via Battle.net - that's because they're not specifically boycotting Steam, as their games aren't available on other digital distribution services. But EA is happy to sell their games on every platform, except for Steam.

1st only lasted like 12 hours for me since I didnt think that you can complete the mainquest that easily and it didnt really warn you anyway. Later I reloaded a savegame and completed all sidemissions before completing the main story. Was quite boring since the sidequests seemed random generated levels like in Diablo 2 with the same enemies, but it wasnt much longer. All in all 20 Hours. I really would like to know how you can reach 80 hours there. Maybe if you let it run while sleeping, working and eating.

2nd one was longer. About 40-50 hours, but this time I also was very careful to do all the sidequests first so I wouldnt be disappointed. Regrettably this led to a slight disconnection from the main story and made it quite boring again. Also because the sidequests were as short and simple as quests in WoW.

Waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.

I put a bit more time into the MP mode this weekend and I'm impressed. I feel like its a great way to play through the different classes and see their powers in action. Playing with other players also shows me a lot of stuff I've never seen. It might have been in since the start but I've just never seen it.

Wish the release day would get here already. I feel like the next week is going to be painful amounts of advertising and marketing bs.

It really sucks that you can't buy the CE anywhere at this point. Hopefully they'll go run some more copies of that version. I wouldn't mind moving up to that package at this point. Feels like salt in an open wound that they announce this included dlc then you go try and buy it and they're saying, "Oh, did we mention it's completely sold out!? MUAHAHAHAHA"